environmental law summary

environmental law, Principles, policies, directives, and regulations enacted and enforced by local, national, or international authorities to regulate human treatment of the nonhuman world. The vast field covers a broad range of topics in diverse legal settings, such as state recycling laws and federal fuel-efficiency standards in the U.S., a law in Germany mandating the gradual elimination of energy production from coal-fired power plants, an African-led initiative to build a “Green Great Wall” across the African continent, and international treaties for the protection of biodiversity and the ozonosphere and for the mitigation of climate change (see global warming). During the late 20th century, environmental law developed from a modest adjunct of the law of public health regulations into an almost universally recognized independent field protecting both human health and nonhuman nature.